Deceit and Sexual Women's Sexual Sins in Dante's Inferno

Dante’s representations of women and feminine sexuality in the Inferno show contrasts within the various natures of women and their sexuality. His era’s vision of the perfect woman one that idealized beauty, passiveness and purity is represented by his life long love Beatrice. This ideal and its representation in Beatrice are contrasted with the dark depictions of women, their sexual sins, devious devices, and evil act, which Dante encounters in hell. This paper will argue that the severity of condemnation in hell for women’s sexual sins is related to the increasing degrees of deceit. Dante’s perspective of the evil side of femininity becomes apparent from the opening of the inferno. Dante, in midlife, strays from his path into a “dark wood,” where he is able to see a bright mountain. In his quest to reach his goal, he is thwarted and driven deeper into the wood by the ravenous and promiscuous she-wolf described as

“She tracks down all, kills all and knows no glut,but, feeding she grows hungrier than she was. She mates with any beast” Canto1, lines 92-95 [i] The she-wolf portrays the worst characteristics of women; she reflects lust, pride and avarice. These traits and characteristics are a foreshadowing of the sins possessed by the many women whom Dante will later encounter. This monster is contrasted by Dante’s feminine ideal, his true love Beatrice. She reflects a divine love sent by the purest of women, the Virgin Mary, and even asks Virgil to guide Dante through the hell. Her motivation is clear “It is I Beatrice, who send you to him

I come from the blessed height for which I yearn. Love called me here. Canto 2 lines 70-73[ii] It is her love that provides Dante with the courage to move through Hell and onto the path of God’s light. In many ways, she is his personal savior. Divine, virginal and pure in nature, Beatrice is the perfect woman and all feminine creatures or monsters within Hell are her contrasting antitheses. In the second circle, that of “the carnal” or lustful we find various famous lovers from throughout history buffeted about in a whirlwind of an endless storm. “And this, I learned, was the never ending flight Of this who sinned the flesh, the carnal and lusty Who betrayed reason to their appetite.” Canto 5, 37-40 [iii] The women condemned to this level of hell knowingly lived their lives in tempestuous adultery and in whirlwind romances, deceiving the men in their lives. When Dante asks who is condemned here, Virgil mentions famous lovers from throughout history. For instance, Virgil mentions first the Empress Semiramis, the perverse Assyrian queen who legalized incest in her kingdom[iv] :“Lust and law were her one decree” Canto 5, 57[v] There as well are the adulterers Cleopatra, Helen (of Troy), and Dido, the Carthaginian queen who, when jilted by her love, commits suicide[vi],[vii].The overwhelming impression given by the emphasis on women is that they are deceitful and at fault in these relationships. It is as if the men were simply swept along like dry leaves by the wind of lust or love. Dante then speaks to two lovers there called Francesca da Rimini and her brother in-law Paolo Malatesta, illicit lovers murdered by Gianciotto Malatesta Francesca’s husband.[viii] They explain that they fell in love reading the story of Lancelot and Guinevere, which was so romantic that they developed feelings for one another. They present themselves as victims of the love’s trials, but there is more to this story than what they contest, for the marriage of Francesca to her husband was necessitated as a peace pact between two warring clans- the Rimini and the Ravina[ix]. The traditional story is that the wedding was arranged, and the handsome and dashing Paulo was initially used to deceive...

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...1
A Study in Evaluation of Sin
in Dante'sInferno
Professor
Dr N. Shabazi
Nastaran Saberi Rad
1392
2
Dante Alighieri (1256-1321) was an Italian poet whose most acclaimed work is The Divine
Comedy (La Divina Commedia) which is a trilogy: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. In the
Inferno Dante with the guide of ancient Roman poet Virgil (1 st c. BC) goes through the nine
levels of hell. During this journey Dante encounters and converses with the souls of the
damned. At the end of the journey Dante must face Satan (Lucifer) and find a solution to escape the underworld.
Dante's world was filled with civil and international wars; political struggles; and corrupt
Popes; religion was misunderstood, abused and manipulated; greed, pride and violence were
disguised as holiness.
Dante is the first Renaissance Christian humanist who exposes the evil of his world in his
symbolic Inferno. This study is about gaining an insight of Dante's evaluation of sins based
on the level of hell and the severity of punishment that he put the damned souls – who committed sins of different nature – through.
Key words and key terms: nature of the sin, intellectual sin, sins of indulgence, the dual nature of humans.
Dante'sInferno is Symbolic; especially the manner in...

...Dante’sInferno:
Cantos 1&2
Encounters
Discuss the symbolism of the 3 beasts encountered by the narrator.
The narrator describes the beasts of the Leopard, the Lion, and the She-Wolf.
The Leopard symbolizes Concupiscence and Envy.
The Lion symbolizes Violence and Pride. There is not much description given to the Lion, other than the Lion threatens to attack the Narrator.
The She-Wolf symbolizes Fraud and Avarice because it’s introduction shows the Narrator describing it as “a rack for avarice, gaunt, and craving.” Virgil even talks about how the She-Wolf “knows no glut, but feeding, she grows hungrier than she was.”
Who is Virgil and what is his importance?
Virgil is a shade, who was once a man, who has been sent to assist the Narrator in crossing through Hell until he reaches the “burning mountain,” where another spirit is to guide the Narrator, as Virgil is unable to go there as a result of past rebellion. Virgil is important because he represents Human Reason, which has the ability to assist us up to a certain extent.
Allusions
What is the purpose of the DARK WOOD?
The Dark Wood is where the Narrator has strayed from the True Way, which can be interpreted as a symbol for Sin, which separates us from God’s path, as the Narrator describes the Dark Wood as being a place of fear, numbing, and evil.
What is the STRAIGHT ROAD?
The Straight Road is an allegory for God’s plan for our salvation, shown by the...

...The Inferno is a work full of imagery that describes the horrors of hell through the words of the author. What does Dante gain by going through Hell? What does Dante gain by all of this by taking himself through such an experience? I believe there are three elements of life that Dante realizes through his time in Inferno. Throughout the book I feel the three elements Dante learns of are confidence, clarification of his faith, and a release from his own personal hell of isolation.
In the beginning, we see Dante as a somewhat scared and untrusting individual. He questions his worthiness and tenacity several times. As Virgil leads Dante though hell, Dante becomes less frightened and more trusting of his leader. He never seems to become synthesized to the horrors of hell. He becomes more confident and less startled but is still shocked with his experience. Dante allows himself to feel the emotions of the inhabitants of hell without accepting their behavior. This final point takes his confidence to a higher level. The faith of our character seems to be fading in the first canto. He has to trust in his God and does not look to his God for support during the appearance of the three beasts. On the appearance of Virgil, Dante questions why the mother of God would find him worthy of a tour through hell. He claims he is not worthy of such an honor and gains more faith by allowing himself to see how his God has organized the punishments of hell....

...The Meaning of Life Through Death
Dante’sInferno represents a soul’s journey towards God and the struggle between doing what is morally right as opposed to fulfilling one’s desires. Dante confronts many characters who have done wrong in their life to end up in Hell. Some of these sinners are in Hell because of their sin of violence, either towards themselves or others; or their sin of fraud, either by being a hypocrite or committing theft. As a result of his journey through Hell, Dante realizes that to disobey God’s guidance and moral code is to be faced with severe consequences that last an eternity.
Dante’s journey takes him through the seventh circle of Hell which possesses rings of violent sinners. The first ring contains the sinners who are violent towards themselves. Dante encounters a sinner who said, “We too shall come like the rest, each one to get/ His cast-off body – but not for us to dwell/ Within again, for justice must forbid/ Having what one has robbed oneself of” (105. Line 96-99). This demonstrates the individuals in this ring have committed the sin of violence against themselves. By taking their own life they revealed that they have no appreciation for the gift of their own life that God had provided them with. The punishment for these sinners is to be turned into trees and to be immobile, thus denying them the right to take the form of a human. Since these sinners...

...Personal Aspects of the “Inferno”
Every great poem has a setting that signifies the story or a setting that has a cultural significance to the concept of the story. In the “Inferno”, setting and culture are important roles especially because it was written in the early 14th century. Florence, Italy was founded in 59 b.c. by the Romans. Dante was known as a literary figure, he was born roughly around 1265 and passed in 1321. There are many cultural aspects of Italy that are in the Inferno, such as Michelangelo’s art, the use of the vernacular, Dante’s works and others. Significant and well-known people such as: Virgil; considered the greatest of Latin poets, Aristotle; a great philosopher, Farinata; a Ghibelline political leader, Count Ugolino; an Italian nobleman, and others were in The Divine Comedy. In the “Inferno”, there were many political arguments. Dante, writing the Inferno shortly after being exiled, makes his allegations in various ways. He condemns political figures with whom he disagreed by dispersing them ruthlessly throughout different circles of hell. Dante asserts throughout the poem his political belief that church and state should be separate but equal powers; Lucifer chews on Judas (betrayer of Christ, the ultimate spiritual leader), Cassius and Brutus (betrayers of Caesar, the ultimate political leader). Hell’s final circle consists of treachery against religion and...

...Dante’sInferno: The Ninth Circle
The book Inferno, by Dante Alighien, was written in the 14th century. Dante Alighien was born in Florence, Italy around 1265. He is considered to be “the Supreme Poet” of the Italian language and his works the Commedia are the single greatest literary works composed. The Commedia is split up into three different sections: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Inferno is Dante’s account of traveling through hell. He separates hell into nine different levels, each one worse than the one before. Each realm is called a “circle”. On his journey through hell, he is guided by an angel, Virgil. Virgil is sent to guide Dante by his love in life, who is not his wife, Beatrice. Beatrice awaits Dante in Heaven. In Dante’s, Inferno he places people that commit acts of treachery in the deepest circle of hell because of his own personal experiences.
The ninth circle of hell consists of traitors. Dante considers these to be among the worst people in hell. That is why he has placed them in the bottom realm. Here there are people who have betrayed their loved ones, families, political parties, countries, and benefactors. There are four sections in the ninth circle. They are the Caina, Antenora, Ptolomea, and Judecca. Dante places people in certain circles and sections of those circles depending on their acts in life.
In order to get...